Philadelphia Phillies' Darin Ruf (18) is congratulated by teammates after hitting a home run during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

WASHINGTON — The Phillies started an outfield of Darin Ruf, John Mayberry Jr. and Domonic Brown Tuesday night.

Who would have thought six months ago — heck, one month ago — that Ruf would be the guy out of those three most likely to have a future in the Phillies’ outfield?

The Phillies lost to the Washington Nationals Tuesday night, 4-2, but it wasn’t from a lack of long-distance mashing by Ruf. He connected on a pair of solo home runs, which means all four runs the Phillies have scored in the two games against the National League East champions in this final series have been driven in by the rookie. (Monday night it was his two-run triple that gave the Phils a 2-0 win.)

He seems to have Washington’s number, right?

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“Well,” Ruf said, “they are one of only two teams I’ve really played against so far. That helps.”

“If we didn’t have Ruf, we might not score against Washington,” said manager Charlie Manuel, who has seen the minor-league home-run champ drive in his team’s last seven runs against the Nationals spanning the last three times the teams have met.

“If you hit the ball like that, it’s interesting because he has a quick bat ... He’s hit, what, 42 home runs between here and (Double-A Reading) and he hit .300? I mean, who else does that? That gets your attention. That’s not 10 or 12 home runs or 30 or 40 ribbies. That’s big hitting.”

While Ruf was raising his average to .355 and collecting his sixth extra-base hit and ninth RBI in 31 at-bats, Mayberry was going 0-for-5 with two strikeouts. He heads into the regular-season finale on a 3-for-36 skid that has lowered his average to .245 for the season. In 479 plate appearances this season, Mayberry has 46 RBIs.

It isn’t a coincidence Manuel has been bellyaching about a lack of production from outfielders lately. And he made it clear that he’s taking notes as this season closes.

In other words: John Mayberry Jr., you’re on notice.

“If you see somebody the way he’s been hitting it for power,” Manuel said, “I know if I saw someone hitting it that way, I knew it would be affecting me. I’d know I’d better pick it up.

“This a dog-eat-dog game. I think a lot of players don’t understand that anymore. If somebody is hungry and mean, they can come in and take your job in a New York minute.”

Ruf has work to do defensively in left field, and he’ll play winter ball in Venezuela to work on that. However, in his handful of games in left with the Phillies he hasn’t made any demonstratively terrible plays. Meanwhile Tuesday, Brown was in right field running to a spot on Adam LaRoche’s home run that was about 20 feet away from where the ball went over the wall. In the ninth inning, Brown overran a fly ball down the right-field line in foul territory, jumping to make the catch as the ball landed about five feet behind him. It was the type of stuff that makes you want to send the guy to an optometrist.

“Coming into the final stretch, knowing that I was going to get to play a little bit,” Ruf said, “I was just trying to put myself in a position where I could compete in spring training next year, if not for a starting job just a spot on the team.”

It was an odd night, as both teams used a lot of bench players in the starting lineup and both had to scratch their scheduled starting pitchers and use a gaggle of relievers to get the job done. B.J. Rosenberg made the start for the Phillies and pitched four solid innings, but Josh Lindblom gave up his 14th gopher ball in 71 innings this season to LaRoche and another run in the sixth, and Antonio Bastardo allowed a run to cross the plate in the eighth.